Ji Cheng (; 1582 – c. 1642) was a

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

garden designer A garden designer is someone who designs the plan and features of gardens, either as an amateur or professional. The compositional elements of garden design and landscape design are: terrain, water, planting, constructed elements and buildings, ...

. Ji Cheng was born in the 10th year of the reign of the

Wanli Emperor The Wanli Emperor (; 4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), personal name Zhu Yijun (), was the 14th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1572 to 1620. "Wanli", the era name of his reign, literally means "ten thousand calendars". He was th ...

(1582) in

Tongli Tongli, alternately Tong-Li (; Wu: Don li, ) is a town in Wujiang district, on the outskirts of Suzhou, Jiangsu province. It is known for a system of canals, it has been given the nickname "Venice of the East". The place retains many of the f ...

, Wujiang County,

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

province. As a youth, Ji Cheng made a name for himself as a landscape painter and private garden designer, he admired two

Northern Song Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

painters: Guan Tong () and Jing Hao (). During his lifetime, he designed numerous private gardens in Southern China. In his late years, he summarized his lifetime experience into a monograph on landscape design: (), Yuanye: The Craft of Gardens, 1631. Ji Cheng's '' Yuanye'' (), is the first monograph dedicated to garden architecture in the world. His work has been translated into many languages. Ji Cheng's thirty-five room former residence at Hueichuan Bridge, Tongli, is now a tourist attraction.

"The garden is created by the human hand, but should appear as if created by heaven."

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Ji Cheng: Yuan Ye Tu Shuo, ed. Zhou Nong, Shandong Huabao Chubanshe, 2004, *Ji Cheng: Yuan Ye, ed. Wang Changmei, Golden Maple Publishing House. *Translations **Ji Cheng: Craft of Gardens, Yale University Press, 1988, Translated by Alison Hardie **Yuanye, le traite du jardin, Ji Cheng, Traduit par Che Bing Chiu 1582 births 1640s deaths Landscape or garden designers Architects from Suzhou Ming dynasty artists {{China-bio-stub